ACCOMPANIST

MARY LONSDALE BAKER

Mary Lonsdale Baker grew up in Laramie, Wyoming, where she graduated from Laramie High School and the University of Wyoming with a B.A. degree in piano performance. After living in Italy for several years, she moved to Tucson with her two daughters and attended the University of Arizona. Here she earned a M.A. in Music Education and became certified to teach English and music. She taught strings at Gridley Junior High and orchestra and English at Palo Verde High School for 25 years, retiring from TUSD in 1999. She taught writing at Pima Community College for seven years, and now enjoys the freedom to participate in musical activities and to travel.

Mary has two daughters ─ Anne Rodda is the director of the Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand and is a free-lance arts manager with contracts for sculpture and literature festivals. Katie Rodda is a professor of Theater Arts at City College in San Diego, and she directs for several local theater companies.

Since her retirement, Mary stays busy at St. Philip’s In The Hills Episcopal Church as a member of the Canterbury Choir and volunteer teacher with the after-school music and homework program there. She also accompanies various soloists and plays chamber music throughout the city and in Green Valley.